Healing
by DrawnToDarkness
Summary: Speculation on how a scene from 1x13, Tracks, could possibly go. Spoilers for the promo. Pre-ship SkyeWard.


_One-shot based on speculation for the last scene in 1x13, which is supposed to be a game changer... As requested by Anon, on Tumblr :)_

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><p>Time slowed as the bullet was fired.<p>

FitzSimmons dove for cover as instructed, one of them yelping as their elbow struck against the corner of a table. Coulson shouted something, his eyes wide with horror. Ward returned fire, hitting the shooter but Skye didn't see him or her fall.

She saw May fall instead.

The other agent seemed to move in slow motion but still somehow beat the bullet that had been fired in the enclosed space of the train carriage.

The bullet meant for Coulson.

Skye tried to hold her ground, tried to act as a human shield for the man who'd come to mean so much to her, who'd given her a family, become her father... But Coulson wrapped his arms around her, turning them so his body was between the bullet and hers.

May somehow got there first, a stifled groan escaping her as the bullet burned through layers of leather and skin and muscle.

Time seemed to freeze completely for a second, then speed up to a dizzying rate.

Simmons crawled to the fallen agent as Coulson dropped to his knees, cradling May's head in his lap as he willed her – begged her – to hold on. Tears burned Skye's eyes but she was kept from following suit but the hands that gripped her upper arms and turned her away.

"Are you okay?" Ward's voice sounded strange and distant. "Skye? Are you hurt?"

She was, but the scrapes and sprains and bruises she'd sustained during her brief tussle with the bad guys – whoever they were, she still didn't know – didn't seem to matter in comparison to May's injuries. She shook her head and turned back to the scene unfolding before them, careful not to cradle her wrist until she was sure he couldn't see.

Simmons called out orders, a note of hysteria in her voice but no one questioned her. They worked together, as quickly and efficiently as always, and before she knew it, Skye was sat beside Ward in the front of the SUV as May lay across the laps of FitzSimmons and Coulson in the back seat.

They made it to the Bus in record time and the lab-come-medical bay was quickly set up. Coulson put in a call for immediate back up since their pilot was incapacitated and no one else was able to fly the plane. Simmons did her best to stabilise May but Skye knew when she saw her friend break down in her partner's arms that it didn't look good.

What drove her to do it, or how she knew what to do, Skye would never be able to explain.

Aware of FitzSimmons standing outside of the lab, and of Ward watching her every move as though he suspected she was injured but was keeping it from him, Skye made her way into the lab. She saw Coulson look up out of the corner of her eye, thought he might have said something but she couldn't hear him above the blood pounding in her ears.

She crossed the short distance between the door and May in next to no time and reached out to grasp the bare arm of the far too pale woman with hands that were surprisingly steady.

Warmth blossomed under her palms, spreading through her entire being. Her eyelids fluttered shut on a gasp as colours burst behind her eyes; reds and yellows and blues and greens before all were engulfed by a blinding bright white.

She heard noises, voices, but couldn't make out what they were saying or remember how to respond.

She felt... She felt the warmth fade a little, then build into a heat that was staggering in its intensity, almost painful in fact.

And then that was all she felt. Pain. White hot pain that flooded every part of her though she swallowed the scream that rose in her throat and welcomed each new wave, somehow knowing that it was necessary.

Abruptly, the heat and the pain and the colours stopped.

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><p>Her heart pounded as panic threatened to engulf her at the never ending darkness around her. She tried to move her hands and feet, tried to open her eyes, but she was paralysed, unable to get her too heavy limbs to cooperate.<p>

A strangled noise reached her ears and it was only belatedly that she realised it had come from her.

"It's okay, Skye. You're okay." The voice was familiar though the edge in it was not. She tried to turn her head towards it, seeking it out as her muddled mind tried to make sense of everything. "Come on, Rookie. You've slept long enough. Wake up. That's an order."

Rookie?

Ward. Only Ward called her that but he'd never sounded so worried or so scared...

"Skye?" And that was AC, his voice close by but still so distant. "It's time to come back to us, Skye. Open your eyes."

He sounded worried, too, but Skye couldn't figure out why. She remembered Fitz holding Simmons, telling her she'd done all she could. Ward standing silent and broodingly, their constant guard holding vigil over them all. Coulson murmuring quiet pleas, begging May to hold on. May... getting shot.

May dying, bleeding out.

"May!" It was more of a gasp than a cry, torn from her throat as she sat up, her heart pounding furiously in her chest. Skye blinked, her vision returning and looked around the room.

FitzSimmons stood beside Ward, arms around each other as tears shimmered in their eyes. Ward sat on one of the lab stools, looking uncomfortable as though he'd been sat in the same place for too long. Turning her head, Skye saw Coulson but it wasn't the relieved smile on his face that made her gasp again; it was the woman standing beside him that drew that reaction from her.

May. Still too pale for Skye's liking but at least she was alive – and standing, no less.

"What... What happened?" Even as she asked, Skye began to suspect she knew the answer. She kept her gaze fixed on Coulson and May, unable to look at the others for fear of what she'd see on their faces. "What..?"

"They know, Skye," Coulson told her softly, reaching out to take her hand at whatever he saw pass over her face. "We had to tell them when you..."

"When I what?" Skye fought the urge to pull her hand back, uncomfortable at the thought of actually having some sort of ability let alone having demonstrated them before she even knew what they were. "What did I do? Did I hurt someone?"

"The only person you hurt is yourself." The answer came from May, whose expression was unreadable. "You are not allowed to do that again, Skye."

"But you're alive," Skye frowned in confusion. "Whatever I did... Isn't it a good thing?"

"It is," Coulson was quick to assure her, "but –"

"But we almost lost you," Ward's voice sounded pained, enough so that she turned her head to look at him. For the first time, she noticed the shadows under his eyes, the stubble on his face. "You've been out of it for three days, Skye. Your heart stopped twice."

"Wh-what?" She lifted her gaze to Simmons for confirmation, finding it in the almost haunted expression that flittered across Jemma's face before she could conceal it. "I died?"

"Technically." The look on Coulson's faced warned the others against saying anything that would upset her further. "We'll discuss it later. For now, I want you to rest. I want all of us to rest. It's been a long week."

At the tone he used, Skye lifted her gaze back to Coulson. He looked older, she thought. Weary. Guilt flared inside her at the thought that it was because of her and she dropped her gaze, lowering her head so her hair fell over her face and concealed the tears stinging her eyes from view.

The team seemed reluctant to leave, but after what she assumed was a meaningful glare from their boss, she heard Fitz murmur a goodnight and felt Simmons approach to hug her briefly before she, too, left the lab. The silence that fell was so absolute that Skye thought the others had gone, too, and lifted her head to check.

Coulson, May and Ward were all still there. Coulson and Ward appeared to be having some sort of staring match over her head across the bed, while May's gaze was fixed on Skye herself.

Clearing her throat, the older woman waited until the two men looked at her. "You can continue your glaring match outside. I want a moment alone with Skye."

Ward looked like he was going to protest but he closed his mouth when Coulson got to his feet and jerked his head towards the door. With obvious reluctance, her SO left the lab after his boss, leaving Skye alone with May.

"Never do that again," May told her the moment the door was closed, her tone firm. "I mean it, Skye."

"It saved your life." Skye drew her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "You could try saying thank you."

"I would never thank you for putting my life ahead of yours. Nor would any of the SHIELD agents who have died to keep you safe."

"Maybe you should have just let me die." Skye shrugged a shoulder and stared at her knees. "At least then no one else would have to."

"Don't say that." May's tone was furious, causing Skye to look up when the other woman leaned over her. "Don't you _ever_ say that."

"Isn't it what you're thinking? What you're all thinking?" A tear slid down her cheek and Skye wiped it away angrily. "I'm a ticking time bomb, Agent May. It's only a matter of time before the people who killed my family and Agent Avery and all of those other agents realise where I am and come looking for me. And when they do… when they do, I don't want anyone else dying to save me."

"They'll only find out if you start using your powers to save people who should be left to die. No one aboard this plane is going to say anything to anyone, not even to Director Fury." At that, Skye stared at her in surprise. "You are a member of this team, Skye. We protect our own."

"But you won't let me protect you," Skye pointed out, her voice quiet. "That's all I want to do."

"In order to protect us, you need to be alive to do it. That means taking no more risks with your own life." May's tone brokered no room for arguments. She stared at Skye until the younger woman nodded. "Get some rest."

The order issued, May turned and strode out of the doors. Skye watched her pause beside Coulson and Ward but had no idea what was said. All she knew was that when May left to go back upstairs, Coulson followed after giving Skye a small smile through the glass of the door.

Expecting Ward to follow them, Skye was surprised again when the door to the lab slid open and her SO returned silently to take the stool he'd been sitting on when she woke up. For several minutes, neither of them said anything, staring at each other in silence instead.

"You're not going to get much rest sitting on that stool," Skye pointed out eventually. "You can go up to your bunk, Ward."

"Simmons wants you to stay here hooked up to the machines," was all he said in answer.

"That doesn't mean you need to stay, too." She fought the urge to roll her eyes when he didn't comment. "Seriously, I don't need a chaperone." Almost as soon as she'd spoken, another thought crossed her mind and she arched an eyebrow. "Unless you've been ordered to stay? Not for my safety but for everyone else's?"

That gained a reaction from him, his eyebrow twitching as his brow furrowed. "No one's ordered me to stay. Quite the opposite, actually," he admitted, running a hand through his hair wryly.

"Then why are you still here?" Skye asked softly. "You think I'm going to run away? We're in the air, if I'm not mistaken, and I've not got any sudden urge to skydive with or without a parachute if that's what you're thinking."

"That's not what I'm thinking."

"Then what are you thinking because as usual, you're giving nothing away." Anxiety caused butterflies to flutter in her stomach. "Is it because Coulson told you I'm an 0-8-4? Because you don't trust me to be left on my own? Tell me, Ward, because I think I deserve to know what I've done to make you mad at me."

"It's not an issue of trust," he retorted, his jaw clenching. "And I don't care about you being a 0-8-4. I'm mad at you because you used powers you didn't even know you had to try and save someone else at the cost of your own life. Damn it, Skye. You could have died – you _did_ die." The fury in his voice didn't surprise her half as much as the pained, almost wild glint in his dark eyes when he looked up at her. "I watched you die," he continued, his voice softer but that only seemed to make the raw quality to it more pronounced, "and that's not something I ever want to see again."

She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again when she realised she had no idea what she was going to say. She couldn't tell him it would never happen; in their line of work, close calls and near misses were just something she was slowly beginning to accept as being part of the routine. She could ask him why it mattered so much, why her dying or coming close to it had affected him so deeply but Skye suspected she already knew the answer, just as she suspected neither of them were ready to handle it.

"You can't spend all night on the stool, Grant." She bit her lip at his subtle reaction to her use of his first name. "You heard Coulson; we're all supposed to rest up. As much as I envy your ability to sleep anywhere, I think if you try sleeping on that stool, your face is going to end up meeting the floor."

"I'm not leaving you." Not for the night, not ever. That was the silent message he conveyed with one lingering glance that caused her heart to quicken. "I'll be alright."

"No, you won't. And I won't be because I'm not going to be able to sleep wondering when I'm gonna hear you hit the floor." Before she could question herself, Skye shuffled over on the narrow table-come-hospital bed, tugging back the blankets that covered her in invitation. She quirked an eyebrow when he only stared at her in response. "There's slightly less chance of one of us hitting the ground if we share," she countered. "Not to mention we'll both sleep easier."

After a long moment of staring at her, Ward moved without a word. He toed off his shoes and climbed up onto the bed beside her. With a little bit of wiggling and awkwardness, they soon settled into a relatively comfortable – and not quite so precarious – position of Ward lying on his back and Skye lying mostly on top of him.

"Go to sleep, Rookie," he ordered gruffly, his arm wrapping around her middle to keep her from falling off in the night.

Suddenly exhausted, it was an order Skye was only too happy to follow.

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><p><em>End<em>  
><em>Having rewatched the promo (more times than is probably healthy), I'm getting more convinced that if anyone's injured on the team, it's probably going to be Skye. Meep. Is it 4th Feb yet? <em>


End file.
